Smile as you kill
by BookOfXcentric
Summary: Slight HijiOki, don't like don't read. Hijikata wakes up at night to have a talk with Souji about giving Tetsu a sword. Bad Summary...


**A/N: **I wrote this two years ago but never uploaded it. Don't know why. Slight HijiOki. My English teacher asked me to write it so that i could pass her class. ... it's not very good, but I passed. When I wrote this I hace only read the first vol of PMK and seen the begining of the anime.

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The rain poured down outside while the thunder was raging over the dark sky. It seemed like the storm had no intention of subsiding any time soon.

A bolt of lightning hit the ground not to far away and made the doors shake.

Hijikata sat up abandoning the warmth of his futon, with the wind loudly whistling in the trees outside along with the raging storm the fukuchou found it utterly impossible to sleep.

Muttering curses under his breath the man made his way outside thinking that maybe a cup of steaming tea would help gain the sleep he was being so rudely denied.

Steeping out into the thick moistures air his mind wandered to Souji; this air was defiantly not good for that cough of his.

Just as he thought of the younger man, hoping he would be in bed asleep, coughing from around the corner of the building interrupted his thoughts.

"Well I'll be damned" he muttered increasing his pace he rounded the corner and roared "SOUJI!!!" at the white clad figure sitting on the porch trying to keep his long hair under control since the wind seemed to have the time of its life blowing it in his face, and everywhere else.

The violet haired only flinched slightly at the sound of the fukuchous enraged voice before turning around flashing him a huge smile.

"Hijikata-san…" but the older interrupted him: "What do you think you're doing!!?" Hijikata where being unnaturally thoughtful of the other people living within two miles of the area only by not screaming right now.

Grabbing Soujis arm hauling him up he hissed "Are you trying to get seriously ill? What do you think this air will do to that cough of yours!?"

"But Hijikata-san I couldn't sleep and just lying there wasn't helping" Souji pouted while the fukuchou resoled into dragging him towards his own room.

---

Souji stumbled and fell to his knees as another coughing fit raged his fragile body, his lungs felt like they were on fire.

Hijikata was next to him furiously rubbing the younger mans back with the palm of his hand and whispering comforting words in his ear.

The coughs turned more painful and it felt like his lungs were going to explode any second, Souji covered his mouth with his hand and immediately felt the horrid red liquid collect in his palm.

By now Hijikata had scooped him up and was carrying him, the fukuchou wrenched the doors to his room open and gently drooped Souji on the futon and turned him so that the younger was lying on his side.

The coughing had subsided but Souji looked utterly exhausted, eyes closed, mouth slightly opened breathing heavily and beads of sweat trailing down those pale cheeks.

Hijikata's eyebrows furrowed in deep concern, he reached out and touched the younger man's face. His thumb gently wiped the red liquid that marred Souji's pale angelic face ever so slowly that it seemed as if he were stroking the thinest, most fragile glass on earth.

"You need to take better care of yourself…" _'or maybe it's me who needs to take better care of you….'_ Hijikata moved his rough, swordsman hands from Souji's lower lip to caress the young mans cheeks.

Souji opened his eyes staring disoriented around the room before those violet orbs set upon Hijikata and the pale blood smeared lips broke into a familiar smile.

The fukuchou put a hand on his charges back and helped him sit up "feeling better now?"

Souji nodded and the older left his side and started to make him a cup of the horrid foul tasting liquid called medicine.

---

"Drink up" Hijikata ordered and tilted the bowl to make Souji drink every last bit of the medicine.

The younger man cringed in his lap but Hijikata held him firmly and forced the bitter liquid down his throat, knowing how much Souji loathed anything that didn't taste sweet.

"Kami-sama, Souji you're a full grown man and you still act like a spoiled little kid…."

"Hijikata-san?" the young violet haired mans voice was barely above a whisper as he leaned his head against Hijikata's shoulder to be able to see the elders' eyes.

"Hijikata-san, why do you not want to give Tetsu a sword?"

Hijikata sighted and thought back at the conversation they had had earlier that day about however the page Tetsu was ready for a real sword by now or not.

Souji, who had been training with the kid –since Souji didn't have anyone else to train with... nobody else dared but Tetsu, who apparently had a death wish- felt the boy was ready but Hijikata had objected saying the time wasn't right, Tetsu didn't have the courage of a swordsman yet Souji had countered by saying that courage isn't something you learn in training it's something you earn by fighting using that sword in your hands as a weapon to kill.

---

"He's too young; he's only fifteen it would be a mistake…" Hijikata started but then he looked down and found Soujis violet eyes staring up at him, he looked heartbroken "Hijikata-san you're saying I'm a failure?" Souji avoided his gaze and Hijikata was taken aback by his words; how could he think such a thing!

Grabbing the younger's chin he forced him to look at him.

"NO! You're not a failure, never you…"

Souji ignored his words and proceeded to state his case and say what he wanted to say before this turned into and argument as it had last time.

"But you said that giving Tetsu a sword would be a mistake because he's a child. He is fifteen…, I was nine. And who was it that put a sword in my hands? It wasn't Kondou-san… it was you! When I turned fifteen I had long ago become a captain."

"When you accept the sword it means you're giving up your humanity to become a demon." Hijikata objected.

"When I turned fifteen I had already killed many and earned the name the Demons Child." Soujis violet eyes were narrow and cold, it was those eyes that triggered fear in the hearts of anyone who dared oppose him; which made their enemies flee the scene like panicking rats.

Hijikata stared into the two unfeeling merciless orbs, he didn't like it when Souji had that look it didn't suit him.

If Kondou was the heart of the Shinsengumi, Sano the guts and Hijikata the muscles then Souji was most defiantly the inner child or maybe he were more like that mysterious part of the human mind, that part that so easily toys with you.

Hijikata raised his hand and cupped Soujis cheek in a desperate attempt to calm him down "Child of the demon, you belong to me."

Souji smiled at his words and traced his fingers along the elders collarbone "For ever and always!"

THE END


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